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You’ve been teaching your students their multiplication facts. It’s been a couple weeks but they seem to be getting it by the end of math class on Monday, so you’re feeling pretty good. Your students come back to class on Tuesday and you throw out some easy warm-up problems: 4 x 2, 3 x 5.

And...crickets.

It’s as if you never taught the concept! In my classroom, I sometimes felt like I was teaching and reteaching the same math facts over and over again.

﻿Too often, we overemphasize speed and underemphasize understanding and fluency in the math classroom. Learning math facts can be especially tricky for students with disabilities, who might have difficulty memorizing facts and trouble seeing relationships between related facts.

Remember those timed fluency drills your 3rd-grade teacher assigned? Turns out those drills aren't great at building true fact fluency!

Today, I want to share what it really means to acquire “fact fluency.” Keep reading to find out why speed isn’t important and why flexible thinking is at the core of fluency.